#174: When Our Kids Put Us Behind The Eight Ball…

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HOOK’S NOTE: This one comes to us courtesy of my daughter, who is very passionate about the issue of bullying.

I couldn’t be prouder to be the father of  a 13-year-old who cares about the state of the world and not just who Kim Kardashian is jumping on this week.

So let’s get to it, shall we?

Michael Palomino, who has been a Chicago sheriff’s deputy for 30 years, is living every father’s nightmare; he has found himself torn between his vow of honor to the justice system and his love for his child.

No matter what this father did, he was going to lose.

Palomino turned his teenage son over to the police after he was seen as part of a mob in a video beating and robbing a fellow 17-year-old. Palomino now believes that the legal system is treating his son too harshly.

The boy was seen in a YouTube video stomping, punching and slamming another boy to the ground, along with six other teens. All of the attackers covered their faces with hoods or masks during the attack, except Palomino.

In the video the six cowards are seen beating and robbing an Asian teenager in an alley behind a Chicago elementary school. They shout profanities and racial epithets while he is kicked and punched. The video received close to half a million views, and relatives of the 17-year-old who saw the clip informed the teenager’s dad.

Despite an obvious internal struggle, he did the right thing.

“As soon as I saw the video I had to call 911, t he police department. I did what was right as a parent … I am in law enforcement myself. The right thing was to turn him in.”

While he doesn’t regret his decision, he says the consequences for his son’s behavior are too harsh.

Police have charged Raymond Palomino, 17, as an adult with one count of robbery and one count of aggravated battery. Three 16-year-old boys, three 15-year-old boys and one 15-year-old girl have also been charged as juveniles in connection to the case. Authorities are not releasing their names because they are minors, and they have been turned over to a juvenile detention center.

“They are trying to make him look like he is the aggressor in the whole video, and he is not. He is 17 and they are trying to make an example of him,” Michael Palomino told ABC News.

Police are steadfast in their position, which of course, they should be.

“This is very clearly mob type of behavior. They get a lot of courage when its six or seven beating up one person. And this just isn’t tolerable,” Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said.

Raymond Palomino is being held on a $100,000 bond. The attorney for Raymond Palomino has started a fund to help raise his $100,000 bail. I really can’t see too many people forking over cash for this cause, but you never know, right?

During a court appearance Monday, Judge Sandra Ramos refused Palomino’s lawyers’ request to drop the bond, and denied a request to release Palomino on electronic monitoring, according to ABC News affiliate WLS-TV.

Palomino told ABC News when he went to visit his son in jail, Raymond told him he did the right thing in turning him in.

Can you imagine how that conversation went?

Related articles

• 8th Teen Charged In Beating Posted On YouTube (chicago.cbslocal.com)
• Judge Won’t Lower Bond For Teen Charged In YouTube Beating (chicago.cbslocal.com)
• Chicago Teens Charged in Brutal Beating That Went Viral (newsfeed.time.com)